um, yea i do really care, actually.

When I was in fourth grade, we were given an assignment to interview someone who was a different age than you were. Or maybe it was to interview someone who was older than you, but that doesn’t make much sense because when you’re 9, pretty much everyone is older than you. Everyone that would sit for an interview, anyway. Either way, we had to interview someone and I picked my grandmother.

no other reason for this picture except it’s me and mare.

I don’t remember what the interview was about, her childhood maybe? My grandmother was born in 1919, so by the time World War II rolled around, she was already married with a child (well, uncle Phil came closer to the end of WWII, but that’s not the point). None of that mattered, apparently because somehow, probably due to my fascination with life in the WWII era(thanks to American Girl OG, Molly), one of my questions was (something like)

Did you know that the Holocaust was happening? What did you do about it?

I remember her saying (again, something like) “we knew that something was going on over there. we knew Hitler was a bad man but we didn’t realize how bad it really was.”

Being nine, and assuming that the 1940’s looked like war torn England, with air raids and bombings and, in general, having my own ideas about life in those times, I doubtfully accepted that answer, finished my homework, and settled in to watch my stories on Nickelodeon. Who knew that 20-ish years later, this conversation would pop into my head when thinking about America, 2018.

I know I don’t have to remind anyone that we now have children in cages. In America. In 2018. There are children who have been separated from their parents for no reason except that they are trying to come into the country. In America. In 2018.

When I was about three or four, I was in Blockbuster (lol #oldage) with my babysitter, who was like a second mom to me. I was running around, looking at videos to rent, hiding from her, being a real brat. She was getting fed up and finally she said to me “stop running away from me or else someone is going to take you and then you’ll never see me or mommy or daddy ever again.” Being a brazen kid I thought, “yea, right.” I kept sneaking around and hiding until I turned the corner where I thought she was and the aisle was empty. I went the other way and found another empty aisle. Panic set in (scare tactics always worked) “I’ll never see Mommy or Daddy or Harriet or *lists everyone i ever met in my short life up until that point* ever again. I’m all alone. I want my mommy” I thought. Just as the waterworks were about to start, Harriet came out of nowhere. Relief washed over me as I handed her my Faerie Tale Theater Snow White and Christmas at Pee Wee’s Playhouse VHS tapes that I needed to rent because I only saw them 6000 times. I could only imagine what these kids are going through. Not knowing where mommy or daddy are, when they’ll see them again, what’s going to happen to them. unfathomable.

For those who didn’t know, because I didn’t until earlier this week so let me share my new knowledge, if you come into this country illegally, you must surrender yourself to a border agent. You are seeking asylum. (i hope i understood what i read when i read that earlier this week. if i’m wrong please *nicely* let me know and i’ll fix it.) Assuming I relayed my new knowledge correctly, where does taking children away from their parents and putting them in cages with mylar (tinfoil?) blankets come from? How is that the next logical step? How is it OK to tell parents that their children are going in for a shower and then all of a sudden the kid is in New York and the parent is in Texas? HAS NO ONE SEEN NIGHT AND FOG?

In an effort to – you know what, I really don’t know what our Cheeto in Chief was trying to do when he signed the order that says separating children from their parents shouldn’t happen anymore. Was he trying to get some heat off of himself? A little smoke and mirrors to distract everyone from what a turd he is? Then he says his wife and daughter were against the separations and that’s why he signed the order? His wife and daughter – riiight. All of a sudden Mr. Grab em by the pussy gives a shit what his wife and daughter think and feel. Anyway, he signed this order that is only effective for 20 days. After that, all bets are off.

I meant to write this post on Wednesday, when I was at my most upset, but I got a little sidetracked. I figured the situation can’t get worse so I’ll just write about it later. Then Thursday came and with Thursday came Melania’s jacket.

They’re doing this to themselves at this point, right? They HAVE to be bringing this on to themselves. First of all, she was going from DC to Texas at the END OF JUNE. WHY DOES SHE NEED A JACKET? Maybe I dress too much for comfort or I just don’t get fashion, but I’d be a sweaty, miserable mess. It was unnecessary. Then, the Commander in Tweet pops in to say that was her message to the fake news media.

Sometimes the only way to process the shitty things going on are to simplify it as if we were talking to a (cute, scared of the world) nine year old.

We knew something bad was going on, we knew {Trump} was a bad person, but we couldn’t imagine how bad it was.